Nastional Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans on making further research on an asteroid that is assumed to have the capability to destroy the Earth.
The asteroid, named Bennu have been discovered crossing the Earth’s orbit every 6 years since 1999. However scientists discovered that it has gotten closer since then.
Bennu is approxiamtely 1,600 ft in diameter and travels an average distance of 63,000 miles an hour. Scientists predict that the asteroid will pass between Earh and the moon 109 years from now.
According to reports from The Mirror, the impact of the collision is capable of causing “immense suffering and death.” Astronomers revealed that the impact is likely “3 billion tons of high explosives” being triggered all at once, or similar to the atomic bomb that blew up in Hiroshima only 200 times stronger according to experts. To give a better picture, the catastrophe is similar to threat posted on the Bruce Willis’ “Armageddon” of 1998.
“Bennu falls on the boundary, in terms of size, for an object capable of causing a global catastrophe,” says Professor Mark Bailey of Northern Ireland’s Armagh Observatory.
NASA is set to launch Osiris-Rex probe mission in September to study Bennu led by Dante Lauretta, NASA investigator and Planetary Science professor.
“We need to know everything about Bennu—its size, mass and composition. This could be vital data for future generations.”
His team will arrive in Bennu in 2018 and will fly back to Earth 5 years after they have mapped the asteroid and have collected rubble from the asteroid’s surface.
Source: Inquirer
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